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Viewing cable 09ASMARA25, MASSAWA'S ECONOMY DWINDLES

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09ASMARA25 2009-01-21 10:47 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Asmara
VZCZCXRO1294
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHAE #0025/01 0211047
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211047Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASMARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0113
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUMICEA/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FL
RUEPADJ/CJTF-HOA J2X CAMP LEMONIER DJ
RUZEFAA/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHRMDAB/COMUSNAVCENT
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASMARA 000025 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/E AND GEORGIANNA PLATT FOR USAID 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON SOCI PGOV ER
SUBJECT: MASSAWA'S ECONOMY DWINDLES 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Emboffs traveled to Massawa January 14-15 
for a Public Diplomacy engagement (septel) and observed a 
more hollow, destitute city than we saw in April 2008. 
Although the city's vice mayor remained optimistic about the 
city's situation, the evidence on the ground suggested a more 
bleak scenario.  Emboffs also visited an entrepreneurial 
Massawa resident making some headway in the city's shrinking 
economy. End Summary. 
 
ON BECOMING A GHOST TOWN 
------------------------ 
 
2. (SBU) The city of Massawa is known for its excellent 
snorkeling, picturesque islands, and overall relaxing 
atmosphere.  Now, however, the city is also defined by 
shuttered shops and empty streets.  The owner of a dive shop, 
not used to mid-week visitors in Massawa, had to be called 
from his home to rent a boat.  A shopkeeper had to be called 
to show us her wares.  The Red Sea Hotel, the city's largest 
and arguably nicest existing hotel, is a ghost town.  Of the 
15 rooms with guests, Embassy staff occupied eight. 
International visitors occupied only two of the remaining 
seven, one from Mogadishu and one from Finland.  The hotel 
has little to attract international tourists in any case. 
The swimming pool has been under renovation for years, the 
restaurant fare is mediocre, and the bathrooms squalid. 
Massawa's deputy mayor, Yosef Gebremariam, nevertheless was 
optimistic about Massawa's future, claiming at least three 
new luxury hotels will open by the summer months.  However, 
Embassy staff observed no progress had been made since April 
last year on two of the hotels, one of which is still an 
empty shell. 
 
GOTTA KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON 
------------------------ 
 
3. (SBU) Emboffs met with a former USAID micro-credit 
recipient, Ms. Aminah.  A former fighter in the liberation 
struggle, Aminah first went into business in the 1990s baking 
and selling bread.  Later, she branched out into sandwiches 
and eventually also sold beer.  Some of her neighbors 
disapproved of a Muslim woman selling beer and warned her to 
stop.  When she did not, they burned her business down.  She 
then received a micro-credit loan from USAID through the GSE, 
for a large tent hotel.  Unfortunately, it was destroyed in a 
storm and she still owes the GSE 50,000 Nakfa (US$3,333). She 
now tries to operate a sandwich shop, cleverly housed in an 
old Antonov aircraft, which she rents from the Ministry of 
Tourism for 1,500 nakfa (US$100) a month.  When she was 
unable to buy sandwich bread, she built a brick oven and 
produced her own.  Unfortunately, while Aminah is able to 
sell coffee and tea, she has not had a sandwich customer in 
over a year and awaits the yearly Fenkel celebration in 
February for her business to temporarily pick up.  In the 
meantime, she pays her rent by traveling to the surrounding 
mountains to purchase goats and later re-selling them in the 
lowlands for a 28 percent profit.  Aminah feeds her family 
(husband, daughter, and three grandchildren) from her 
spacious garden of tomatoes, corn, peppers, and sorghum, 
using the corn husks and some of the sorghum as feed for the 
goats.  Aminah is hardworking and willing to take calculated 
risks to improve her livelihood.  She would be a prime 
candidate for technical assistance from the government or an 
NGO.  Although her garden was doing well, it was clear she 
could use some advice on how to promote her sandwich shop and 
how to raise goats-- two newborn kid goats were being ignored 
by their mothers and seemed unlikely to survive. 
 
WHERE DID THE PEOPLE GO 
----------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) When asked where all the people in Massawa went, 
Aminah responded that the Massawa economy has contracted to 
the point that residents now travel to the highlands in 
search of work.  Indeed, the streets were devoid of even 
beggars, much less shop owners.  In contrast, the 
considerably smaller city of Ghinda (located midway between 
Massawa and Asmara) seemed to be booming.  Traders bustled 
along while children ran up to the Embassy vehicles to sell 
oranges and lemons, in contrast to the Massawa markets, which 
 
ASMARA 00000025  002 OF 002 
 
 
were closed on both days of our trip. 
MCMULLEN